Sri Lanka, Dec. 14 -- When the first images of the deadly landslides and floods reached South Korea, Rashindra Gnanendra felt something inside him break. Sitting in his small apartment in Jeonju, the 34-year-old factory supervisor from Elpitiya, Galle, watched the news in disbelief.

"It didn't feel real," he said. "We saw what happened to Sri Lanka on TV. We could not imagine what our country was going through."

Two days later, he would be on a plane to Colombo carrying W182,600,000 Rs 38.43 million collected almost entirely from Sri Lankan migrant workers in Korea within 48 hours.

On December 9, he handed every last won ( Korean currency) of it to Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, before returning to Korea the same day.

His stor...